Beloved brothers and sisters,
This is Community Bulletin #49 of Saint Ignatius Parish in Belfast
Contents of this Bulletin:
- This Week in the Life of the Church
- A Pastoral Word
- News
- Announcements
This Week in the Life of the Church
Saints and Feasts of the Week
*The saints named here accompany the days of the week as living witnesses of Christ. Only the principal saint or feast of each day is listed here, in keeping with the liturgical order of the Church.
- Sunday, 27th of September – 1st Sunday of Luke
- Monday, 28th of September – Saint Chariton the Confessor, abbot of Palestine
- Tuesday, 29th of September – St. Cyriacus the Hermit, of Palestine
- Wednesday, 30th of September – Hieromartyr Gregory, the Enlightener of Armenia
- Thursday, 1st of October– The protection of the Most Holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, and Apostle of the Seventy, Ananias, 1st bishop of Damascus
- Friday, 2nd of October – Hieromartyr Cyprian, bishop of Antioch in Pisidia
- Saturday, 3rd of October – Dionysios the Areopagite
- Sunday, 4th of October – 2nd Sunday of Luke
Hymns of the Week
*The hymns listed here are those that shape the prayer of the Church for the week, following the liturgical order and hierarchy. They are offered as an aid to prayer and may be used, as each is able, in personal prayer or a simple prayer rule at home.
RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION IN TONE EIGHT
From on high didst Thou descend, O Compassionate One; to burial of three days hast Thou submitted that Thou mightest free us from our passions. O our Life and Resurrection, Lord, glory be to Thee.
APOLYTIKION OF HOLY PROTECTION OF THE THEOTOKOS IN TONE ONE
O Virgin, we extol the great grace of thy Protection, which thou didst spread out like a bright cloud beyond all understanding; for thou dost invisibly protect thy people from the foe’s every assault. Since we have thee as our shelter and certain help, we cry to thee with our whole soul: Glory to thy great deeds, O most pure Maid. Glory to thy shelter most divine. Glory to thy care and providence for us, O spotless one.
ORDINARY KONTAKION IN TONE TWO
O protection of Christians that cannot be put to shame, mediation unto the Creator most constant, O despise not the suppliant voices of those who have sinned; but be thou quick, O good one, to come unto our aid, who in faith cry unto thee: Hasten to intercession, and speed thou to make supplication, thou who dost ever protect, O Theotokos, them that honor thee.
Epistle and Gospel Readings:
*The Epistle and Gospel of the Sunday that begins the current liturgical week
- Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; 7:1
- Gospel: Luke 5:5-11
The Sunday and daily Scripture readings may be read online via the Archdiocesan website: https://www.antiochian-orthodox.com/calendar
A Pastoral Word: Repentance in Prayer and Confession
In the Gospel reading for this past Sunday, we were given a beautiful example of repentance. Simon Peter, experiencing the revelation of God through the miraculous catch of fish, suddenly realises Who is standing with him in the boat. In the presence of Christ, he also begins to see himself more clearly. He sees his weakness, his unworthiness, his sins, and cries out: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Instead of being cast away, instead of rejection, Peter receives back from God encouragement and love: “Do not be afraid.”
Christ is the Light, and as we come closer to this Light, it exposes the impurities, sins within us. We need faith and courage to face these truths about ourselves. But we also must have trust and hope in God, that He reveals our sins not in order to reject us, but to forgive us, heal us and draw us closer to Himself.
We must, therefore, repent daily. Every day we should ask the Lord to forgive our sins, to teach us His will and His ways, and to give us strength to turn away from what is evil and to do what is good.
All repentance is made possible by the grace of God working within us through the Holy Spirit. It is by God’s grace that our eyes are opened to our sins, that our hearts are moved to repentance, and that we are given the strength to turn back to Him. This work begins and continues in our daily life: in prayer, in examining our conscience, in asking God for forgiveness, and in our struggle to change.
However, we do not always find repentance easy. Sometimes we see our sin clearly, pray about it and sincerely desire to change, yet its burden remains too heavy for us to carry alone, or we repeatedly fall into it again. At other times, our difficulty comes even earlier: we struggle to look honestly within ourselves, to recognise what is wrong, or even to begin to repent. We may excuse ourselves, avoid confronting something painful, or simply not know how to take the first step.
Here, the Mystery (Sacrament) of Holy Confession is a gift of God, given for our spiritual benefit, and one which we should all make use of. Confession is not merely something to which we turn when our private repentance has failed or when a particular sin has become unbearable. Confession itself helps us to repent. Preparing for Confession makes us stop and examine our lives. Speaking our sins in the presence of a witness (a priest) brings into the light what we may have kept hidden even from ourselves. The guidance we receive from the priest can help us to see more clearly what needs to change and how to begin.
There is also something profoundly important about bringing our sins out of the secrecy of our own heart and confessing them in the presence of another. Apostle James writes: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). In the Mystery of Confession, the priest is not simply someone to whom we report what we have done. He stands as a witness before God, while it is Christ Himself to Whom we confess and from Whom forgiveness comes.
Anyone who has experienced a sincere Confession knows the remarkable sense of release which follows it. We may enter carrying something which has weighed heavily upon the conscience for hours, days, months or years, even something which we have repeatedly brought before God in our private prayers. Yet there is a particular moment when we finally speak it aloud before Christ in Confession, hear the prayer of absolution, and realise: I do not need to carry this any longer. The sin has been confessed and forgiven. God has taken away its burden and blotted it out.
St Silouan the Athonite speaks beautifully of this experience: “Tell everything to your spiritual father, and the Lord will have mercy on you and you will escape delusion,” and further “the Holy Spirit acts mystically through the spiritual father, and then when you go out from your spiritual father, the soul feels her renewal.” The peace which follows Confession is not merely the psychological relief of having told someone our secret. It is connected with the Holy Spirit acting in the Mystery.
Importantly, if our Confession and repentance were sincere, we should not continue carrying what we have already placed into God’s hands, nor keep punishing ourselves for what He has forgiven. Instead, we should look forward, striving not to return to the sin and, strengthened by God’s grace, to make right what can be made right. St Porphyrios of Kavsokalivia puts this beautifully:
“We should not return to the sins that we have already confessed. Remembrance of past sins creates bad things for us. Have we already asked for forgiveness? It is finished. God forgives all things through confession. If I think that I have sinned, that I am not functioning well then I will pray about it. I do not close it up inside of me. I go to my father confessor. I confess it. It is finished. The important thing about confession is what we are going to do with the rest of our lives.”
To summarise, private repentance and sacramental Confession are not two competing ways in which God deals with our sins. They are complementary parts of the same work of God’s grace in us through the Holy Spirit, and both are indispensable in our spiritual life. We might compare this with physical healing. We do not ask, “If God can heal me through prayer, why should I take medicine?” The medicine itself may be one of the means through which God answers our prayer and brings healing. Likewise, Confession does not replace our personal repentance, and personal prayer does not make Confession unnecessary. Christ has given us Confession as a medicine of His Church: a place where repentance is expressed, sins are forgiven, wounds begin to heal, and we receive grace and strength to continue our life in Christ.
The discovery of our sinfulness is not an invitation to run away from Christ. It is an invitation to come closer to Him. The more clearly Peter saw his own unworthiness in the light of Christ, the more Christ drew him to Himself and entrusted him with a new life: “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
News
- YAM Belfast – First Bible Study Meeting. On Saturday, 26th September, YAM Belfast held the first session of its new monthly Bible Study series on the Gospel of St Luke. YAM Belfast is our parish branch of the Archdiocese’s Young Adult Ministry, bringing together young adults aged 18–35 (with some flexibility around the age range) for prayer, fellowship and activities within the life of the Church.
The afternoon began with the praying the Ninth Hour, followed by an hour of study and discussion led by our senior altar server, Carsten Lorenz. The first session offered an introduction to the Gospel of St Luke.
After the Bible Study, YAM members joined the wider parish community for Readers’ Vespers, with several helping with readings during the service.
The Bible Study will continue roughly on the monthly on Saturdays before Readers’ Vespers or Great Vespers (with priest). The dates for the next two meetings:
– Saturday, 24th October, 3:30 pm
– Saturday, 7th November, 3:30 pm
If you are a young adult and would like to join YAM Belfast and take part in future events, please complete the YAM Registration Form here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/xVHJZQvcTJ You will then be added to the YAM Belfast WhatsApp group, where we share information about upcoming events and stay connected with one another.
Announcements
- Faith & Fellowship Meeting this week – Join our regular Faith & Fellowship meeting this Wednesday, 30th September, at 7:00 pm on Zoom. We will pray Little Compline and speak about the saints of the day. Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93643306643
- Have you visited our Parish Library yet? Our library offers a growing collection of Orthodox books for adults and children: spiritual classics, lives of the saints, theology, Church history, and books for young readers. A good spiritual book can deepen our understanding of the faith and accompany us in our spiritual life.
You can browse the catalogue and request books online through the parish website. All the information about borrowing books, together with the online request form, can be found here: https://saintignatiusbelfast.org/library
Our librarians, Michael and Porphyrios, will be happy to help if you are looking for something to read. You can contact them at: library@saintignatiusbelfast.org
